THE reputation of the personal computer has taken a horrible hit this year. Viruses have made headlines week after week. Spam now exceeds 50 percent of all e-mail. Hackers and academics have uncovered one Windows security hole after another, turning Microsoft into a frantic little Dutch boy at the dike without enough fingers. If the computer industry were a celebrity, it would hire an image consultant.

Correction: The Windows computer industry would hire one. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, have watched the tribulations of the much larger Windows population with mixed feelings - sympathy, relief, even amusement - because their operating system, Mac OS X, is so far 100 percent virus-free. And because Mac OS X comes with less of its plumbing exposed to the Internet than Windows, hackers are a far more distant worry.

I want "Panther", or OS X 10.3, but I don't want to spend $100+ on it. I'll also need to make sure Final Cut Pro 4 works perfectly with it before I dare to install. Other than that, the OS looks awesome.

I'm excited! It's not an amazing update. But I expect to be able to play with alot more. I admit I havn't heard much about the new features, but I'm generally always excited to play with new Apple applications.